Microsoft Grabs Rise of the Tomb Raider in Xbox Exclusive - Update

[Dandres]

So Sony lets go of Square Enix just for Square Enix to turn around and make games for PS4's competitor. Interesting.

 

[Strazdas]

Microsoft meeting must have went something like this:

Quick, which one of our franchises sold best on PC? Tomb Rider? Ok lets bribe them to exclusivity and force everyone to use our potatobox!

"Rise of the awresfdslk;dsln"

Is that some lovecraftian monster? tell me more!

There must have been some kind of cocktail party where EA and Capcom were talking to Squeenix and telling him how awesome that timed-exclusive deal was. "Yeah, no, never mind that the other system is selling like hotcakes while the XBone collects dust. No no, it's fine. Like MS gives you so much money that it will make you forget any idea of profit you ever had!! Also, it's what your fans want or whatever."
And then they all burst into laughing and start to heartily pat each other on the back.

well, i guess it has to be nice to develop games where you can stop caring about whether the game sells or not since the publisher has already bribed you so much that your turning a profit either way.

Eh, not really. The Xbone and PS4 are basically PCs, changing the release platform is actually really simple (relatively speaking). There's really no way to do a "bad" port with them. Any technical issues the PC experience would happen on the consoles as well, barring issues with abnormal drivers and hardware.

True to a point. however APUs do perform a little bit differently, and Xbox At least are using a costum APU. if, and thats very unlikely, developer actually makes the game to specifically use the close porximity GDDR5 to CPU, then that would cause issue for PC due to PC GDDR5 being further from the CPU as it resides in the GPU. However I cant imagine any developer to bothering with this as it would give very little advantage for something you would need to code around and likely cost much more to develop. the only company i see trying this is Rockstar as they pretty much created a new streaming mode from disk and HDD together for GTA5 to go around the fact that consoles that had to run it were utter shit. people often udnerstimate this but that streaming is pretty big invention. Invetion that is completely useless on PCs since PCs simply are powerful enough to run it off HDD and dont need it, but still an invention.

 

[alj]

Whist this is a timed exclusive, i think this will still cause problems as if you are not developing with PC in mind. Sure the architecture is the same but developing for one fixed device can make you lazy, for example if you cannot work out a bug that makes the game crash at > 60 FPS you can just lock it to 30 on the console, but this is not acceptable on PC. Look at watchdogs and how the PC version was effected by it also being on console.

I am tempted not to buy this on general principle now, or at least wait until a steam £5 special, and i enjoyed the last one too, bit of a shame that the puzzle solving and platforming was put on the back burner but it was still fun.

 

[BrotherRool]

Timed exclusive is fine. This is going to hurt SE (unless Microsoft paid a boatload of cash) because they miss the holiday season on the bigger consoles, but it's okay, I can wait.

 

[Soulrender95]

So Sony lets go of Square Enix just for Square Enix to turn around and make games for PS4's competitor. Interesting.

when did Sony ever "have" Square Enix? SE isn't a first or second party developer, they've always been third party and free to make games for whoever they wanted to make them for.

OT:
so much PR speech and double talk, it's hard to tell if Rise of the Tomb Raider is actually exclusive or timed, either way sucks and I can't help but feel this is going to hurt the brand and destroy what goodwill the previous game garned which seems a shame after the seemingly uphill struggle to get people to care about the brand again after the previous games reboot.

Financially I can see why it makes sense to SE, but I just don't know if the brand is strong enough to survive the PR backlash any more.

 

[OldDirtyCrusty]

They don't want my money? That's ok, there's enough other stuff to play. SquareEnix shot themselfs with this move. If i'll ever play this game it's a rental or second hand. Lucky for me i don't look forward to play it as soon as it's out otherwise i would be pissed. Sucks for the former supporters who don't own a xbone.

 

[Olas]

Timed exclusivity seems really stupid. Like I'm going to go out and buy an Xbone just so that I can play a game SOONER.

But whatever, if Microsoft wants to waste their money that's their prerogative. I never buy games near launch anyway.

 

[Poetic Nova]

Since it's a timed exclusive I dare to say that the PC and PS4 version will gett additional content when the contract with MS ends.

 

[SKBPinkie]

Literally no news related to Microsoft's next-gen policies have been good, as far as the ones I've heard.

 

[smithy_2045]

Nintendo or Sony gets an exclusive: "Good job! That's another reason to buy your console!"

MS gets an exclusive: "What? How dare they! I'll show them by refusing to buy their console!"

You can always rely on the Escapist for an absurd level of anti-MS bias.

Given Squeenix's financials, it's quite possible that funding from MS was extremely helpful in getting them game out in the first place.

Totally agree. When I complained about Destiny having timed exclusive items and maps for Playstation everyone was like, "oh you'll get it eventually, it's no big deal" even though I'll be paying the same as they are. Well, what goes around comes around. I'm not a huge Tomb Raider fan, but I think I'll definitely get this, do my part to encourage more Xbox One exclusives.

My favourite is when Microsoft do it, it's all about the money, but if Sony does the exact same thing, it's somehow about providing a better experience for the gamers.

 

[CaitSeith]

While it's no where near as big as something like Halo or Mario, imagine if both of those series had jumped ship to PS4.

Yes, I can imagine it. PS4 fans would gloat and brag about how now they are such a powerful console master race, that even games are fleeing from their pitiful peasant competitors towards them. Or is it too far fetched?

 

[JayRPG]

While it's no where near as big as something like Halo or Mario, imagine if both of those series had jumped ship to PS4.

Yes, I can imagine it. PS4 fans would gloat and brag about how now they are such a powerful console master race, that even games are fleeing from their pitiful peasant competitors towards them. Or is it too far fetched?

You've quoted the wrong person there, that was a quote I quoted from someone else but I do think that is a little far fetched.

I might have a skewed perspective because I enjoy both Sony and Nintendo (I don't hate Microsoft or anything though, I predominantly game on a Windows PC and I have an Xbox 360).

I don't think making a long-time multi-platform series console exclusive could ever be considered a good thing.

Even Bayonetta 2 which isn't a long running series being Nintendo exclusive isn't a good thing, but the difference there is that Nintendo didn't hand over a truckload of money to get the exclusive, without Nintendo agreeing to publish Bayonetta 2, we would not have Bayonetta 2... the same can not be said about this Tomb Raider sequel and I doubt the same could ever be said for a Halo or Mario game.

 

[CaitSeith]

While it's no where near as big as something like Halo or Mario, imagine if both of those series had jumped ship to PS4.

Yes, I can imagine it. PS4 fans would gloat and brag about how now they are such a powerful console master race, that even games are fleeing from their pitiful peasant competitors towards them. Or is it too far fetched?

You've quoted the wrong person there, that was a quote I quoted from someone else but I do think that is a little far fetched.

I might have a skewed perspective because I enjoy both Sony and Nintendo (I don't hate Microsoft or anything though, I predominantly game on a Windows PC and I have an Xbox 360).

I don't think making a long-time multi-platform series console exclusive could ever be considered a good thing.

Even Bayonetta 2 which isn't a long running series being Nintendo exclusive isn't a good thing, but the difference there is that Nintendo didn't hand over a truckload of money to get the exclusive, without Nintendo agreeing to publish Bayonetta 2, we would not have Bayonetta 2... the same can not be said about this Tomb Raider sequel and I doubt the same could ever be said for a Halo or Mario game.

LOL. Sorry.

 

[Atmos Duality]

Is Square Enix run by retarded monkeys? because if it is that would explain alot.

It's much worse than retarded monkeys; they have Matsuda.
Who was the protege and successor of an even more foolish chimp in nice clothes: Yoichi Wada

Since Sakaguchi's sacking, Squeenix has lost it.
One legitimately good game every 3-4 years, with a bunch of overproduced (and/or overrated*) crap in between.

(*yeah, I'm looking at you Kingdom Hearts)